Cambodia: Dinosaur images noticed in temple ruin

[The Straight Story]

Cambodia: Dinosaur images noticed in temple ruin


Conventional science has it that the dinosaurs were wiped out many millions of years ago either as the result of climate change or a meteorite hitting earth. Some researchers, however, claim that dinosaurs might have continued to roam remote parts of the earth as recently as a few hundred years ago. A few even claim that there might be some small populations of dinosaurs, otherwise believed to be extinct, surviving in the world’s most isolated forests.

A reader has sent to All News Web these photos of the stunning Ta Prohm Temple (pictured below) deep in the jungles of Cambodia.This temple is the work of the remarkable Khmer civilization which lasted from the 800’s AD until the 1400’s AD.

The temple is covered with the most intricate of carvings. The reader who was visiting the area noticed very distinct and clear images that seem to depict a Stegosaurus (pictured above), indicating that this creature might well have survived up until the Khmer era in the region. One expert on Khmer ruins has told us that it is unlikely that these images are a recent addition to the temple.

The stegosaurus (pictured below) was a spectacular beast best known for the row of kite shaped plates that ran along the length of its back. According to conventional science this species existed in North America and died out around 155 million years ago. Villagers in the vicinity of the temple are said to retain traditions of this animal existing until fairly recent times.

http://www.allnewsweb.com/page4994992.php

One guy has an alternate theory on what it is:
http://geochristian.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/stegosaurus-in-cambodian-temple/

(he gets into several theories, here is one of them)
There are plausible alternatives. Some have suggested a rhinoceros or boar in front of a vegetated background. I think a much better alternative is a chameleon. The head and eyes are right, the overall body shape isn’t bad, and chameleons have a serrated ridge along their back (though not as pronounced as on the carving). The tail isn’t quite right, but it isn’t right for being a Stegosaurus either. Given two possibilities—Stegosaurus or chameleon—I think we should go for the chameleon in this case.

[slackmaster]

1. That looks more like a pig to me

:shrug:

[tridim]

2. Looks like a liger to me.

[rcrush]

3. Only the most awesome animal ever...

[L. Coyote]

4. So the fossils have been around for over 150 million years.

There's rock art near dinosaur quarries that's most unusual, plus a mastodon image. Of course, they still show up today, as ice melts.

[NeedleCast]

5. Oh Boy...Don't Let the Fundies See This

[The Straight Story]

10. They already have

The second article I linked to mentions something about that :)

[NeedleCast]

13. Only a matter of time before pictures of Jesus riding Stegasaurus surface

Gotta ride side saddle though.

[MADem]

16. He hath many horthies in hith thtables....

[NeedleCast]

17. Jee-Sus Loved The Little Dinos

All the Dinos of the world

Green and scaley, poop is white
they are precious in his sight

Jee-Sus loved the little dinos of the world

(sing to the tune of Jesus loves the little children)

[Dogmudgeon]

6. ¡Ay carumba ... and don't have a stegosaurus, man!

What an anomaly!

A sufficiently motivated huckster could build an entire industry around this!

By the way, GeoChristian is an excellent website. I can't say it's 100% to my liking, but it's a ray of light in a dark, dark field. I have a couple of "Fundagelical" friends who don't go along with the ignoramus-right herd, who will be hearing about it. Thanks for the post!

--d!

[ThomWV]

7. I'd be more worried about the giant rabbits that are surrounding it

[BlooInBloo]

8. And teh stupid reproduces.

[xchrom]

9. wouldn't that be funny if a few did survive --

i wonder if we'd find those bones?

would viable dna be available?

[On the Road]

11. You Have to Admit,

it certainly does look like a Stegosaurus.

I will pay more attention when someone digs up Stegosaurus bones from the last few centuries.

[Johonny]

18. or the last 145 million years

I mean it went extinct in the Jurassic period.

[Canuckistanian]

12. But that's not possible

Noah didn't take dinosaurs on the Ark.

That's why they're extinct.

[The Straight Story]

14. Any animal not able to get on was raptured and will return with Jesus

:)

[LanternWaste]

15. With as many fossils as there are (and were...)

With as many fossils as there are (and were...), it wouldn't surprise me if one or more fossils of stegosauri were unearthed (for whatever reason) in relatively good condition at the time of the temple's founding-- or if tales of that fossil were passed down a few generations. Wouldn't take much to construct a crude image in one's mind after seeing even half of an intact fossilized stegosaurus I imagine.

Many years ago, when I was taking one of my western civ classes, I was perplexed to read of an accounting of the Flood story in the Epic of Gilgamseh. Perplexed that is, until my prof pounded into my head his main lesson of that semester-- never underestimate the power of stories handed down from one generation to the next-- and don't be surprised if those stories start to travel...

Edit to add: "fossil", because I don't think that the founders of the that particular temple would unearth a stegosaurus corpse.... :P

[Solon]

22. Kinda like how the theory that the story about the Cyclops came about when Greeks...

found Elephant skulls and couldn't explain the "hole" in the forehead as anything other than an eye socket.

Of course, other megafauna skeletons have been unearthed in ancient times, the Ancient Chinese called them dragon bones(in some areas today, they still grind up dinosaur fossils and sell them as aphrodisiacs calling them dragon bones), along with many other cultures.

[csziggy]

24. Actually it is easier to explain than that

The temples were "restored" during the 20th century, after stegosaurus fossils had been recovered and the creatures reconstructed. Somebody could have given a stone mason a picture and let them have at it. And it could have happened at almost any time. The temple was rediscovered in the mid-1890s and cleared 1908 to 1911. Unlike most of the Cambodian temples, it was not really restored, just kept safe enough to be a tourist attraction.

Oddly enough the pictures of the dinosaur did not surface until the late 1990s even though the temple had been visited and photographed by thousands of tourists before that time. And the detail of the carving seem sharper than many of the ones shown on the rest of the temple: http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/cambodia/angkor/taprohm.php

[kestrel91316]

19. A photo can be faked. I'm calling BS until a legitimate archeologist

verifies this.

[semillama]

21. I'm a legitimate archaeologist

and I am here to tell you your BS detector is working perfectly - although it's a real carving.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2009/03/12/stegosaurus-rhinoceros-hoax/

[csziggy]

25. From the comments on that article - might be a fake?

'In 2007, I corresponded with the leading French dinosaur paleontologist Eric Buffetaut, who does fieldwork in Cambodia and Thailand, about this alleged Stegosaurus on the Cambodian temple. Here are Buffetaut’s comments:

“I think this carving is a recent fake. As you mention, it seems to be
a different color from the other blocks, which suggests a recent
addition, which had no time to weather to the same dark color as the
rest. restored]. People in SE Asia are now perfectly familiar with dinosaurs
and what they may have looked like, so I can easily imagine a local
sculptor deciding to add a dinosaur carving to a Khmer temple (in a
place like Cambodia, restoration of remote ancient buildings is
likely to be done locally with not much supervision by trained
archeologists). I have seen many sandstone carvings of dinosaurs in
Thailand, made by local people as decorations.

Moreover, the head is not at all stegosaur-like. It is too big relative to the
body and in fact it is ceratopsian-like, with a neck frill and what
looks like a horn above the eye. It is totally unlikely that an
ancient Khmer sculptor could have combined parts of two different
dinosaurs in this way (not to mention the fact that no remains of
horned and frilled ceratopsians have ever been found in SE Asia). But
it is just the kind of amusing combination a modern Cambodian who has
seen dinosaur reconstructions in a book or on television could produce.
In my opinion, this carving is a modern creation.”

Comment by Adrienne Mayor — March 14, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2009/03/12/stegosaurus-rhinoceros-hoax/#comment-386

[The Straight Story]

23. There a lot of photos of that temple online (nt)

[StopTheNeoCons]

20. Astronaut in 12th century church carving,,,explainable

http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/salamanca.asp